<)58 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



good roads aud to-day aic enjoying the beuelits derived therefrom. 

 Notably is this true in the State of New Jersey, with upwards of 

 1,000 miles of improved roads; Connecticut, Massachusetts and 

 New York with about 500 miles each. 



It was not until the last session of the Legislature that an act, 

 known as the Sproul Road Law, was introduced and passed that 

 any substantial progress was made in this Commonwealth towards 

 the construction of good roads. It is true that the Flinn Road 

 Law, in which the various counties are authorized to take charge of, 

 reconstruct and maintain township roads in townships that are 

 too poor and upon the taxpayers of which the cost of constructing 

 good roads would be an excessive burden, has been in operation 

 since 1895, and in Allegheny, Northampton and Luzerne counties 

 roads have been reconstructed under said act, but the total mileage 

 of such roads is small. In traveling over the State I have heard con- 

 siderable about poor counties and poor townships, poor townships 

 in particular, and that it would be a long time before they could do 

 anything towards helping construct good roads within their limits. 

 Wlien I have asked the reason for this, the reply invariably has 

 been: "The assessments are so low and the people so poor that we 

 cannot get enough money to keep our roads in repair now, let 

 alone raising additional funds to build stone roads.'' When I have 

 asked about the tax rate in these townships I have been told that 

 it was ten mills, or one per cent., for road taxes, and in several 

 instances the countv rate was the same, on the assessed valuation. 

 Now, this is all wrong. The method is wrong. Exceedingly low 

 assessments work an injury to the property owner, the township 

 and the county. Prospective purchasers of farm properties will 

 not go into a township that has been advertised as being a poor 

 township and brought into disrepute thereby. What is the differ- 

 ence to a taxpayer if he pays one per cent, on an assessed valuation 

 of twenty dollars per acre, or one-half per cent., on a valuation of 

 forty dollars per acre. I take it that the owner, the township and 

 the county are all benefited by the higher valuation. You know 

 the old saying: "Give a dog a bad name and it will kill him." If 

 you allow your township to get a bad name, it is virtually killed 

 so far as progress and improvement are concerned. 



Another wrong that helps make a poor to^^'nship is the working 

 out of road taxes by the tenants or owners of the real estate 

 against which the tax is assessed. Fifty per cent, of the tax levied 

 for road purposes is wasted, or paid as a premium for idleness, 

 and for which no value is given. All over the State the same plaint 

 is heard: "We do not get value for our money expended on road 

 repairs." Macaulay, in describing the almost incredibly bad state 

 of the loads in England in 1785, says: "It was by the highways that 



